


Never Better

by binarystarkillers



Series: TLW Week 2020 [4]
Category: The Long Walk - Richard Bachman
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, LET THESE KIDDOS BE HAPPY, M/M, tlw week ended but I'm the worst so
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-10
Updated: 2020-05-10
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:35:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24104521
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/binarystarkillers/pseuds/binarystarkillers
Summary: “If we could get away from the soldiers, and if there weren't all those sensors, would you try to run?”
Relationships: Ray Garraty & Art Baker, Ray Garraty & Peter McVries, Ray Garraty/Peter McVries, The Musketeers - Relationship
Series: TLW Week 2020 [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1726636
Comments: 8
Kudos: 22





	Never Better

**Author's Note:**

> 04: Escape

“Worst fucking state. The worst fucking state. A horse’s shitstain of a state.”

“Shut _up_ , Parker.”

Unsurprisingly, it was Olson who had spoken. He was drinking from his canteen in big, messy gulps, drops of water spilling down his chin.

Garraty sighed, taking a tube of tuna paste out. “I know, I know, you hate Maine.”

“It’s hot, it’s shitty, and so are the people.”

“Present company excluded?” Baker asked from Garraty’s right, smiling. 

“Meh. Depends on the moment.”

“Wow, thanks, Collie.”

“Any time, asshole.”

“He loves you really.”

“I absolutely do fucking not.”

Garraty laughed around a mouthful of cracker and tuna paste.

“You better not profess your love for Garraty before McVries does, or he’ll kill you.” The comment had come from Olson, and surprise was written all over all their faces as they turned back to the other boy.

Olson raised an eyebrow. His long brown hair was damp with sweat, as was his forehead, but he’d lost the manic glint to his eyes.

“Stop looking at me like that, I’m not nuts yet,” he snapped, and picked up the pace to catch up with the group, Baker and Abraham making room for him.

“Why’s anyone professing their love for me, anyway?”

“Clearly, you’re a top-commodity item, Ray,” Pete said, grinning as he slung an arm around Garraty’s shoulders.

Garraty had no idea how to respond to that, and pushed McVries’ arm off of his shoulders.

“Christ, my feet hurt,” Baker mumbled, and Abraham laughed.

“You, me, and the other poor fuckers on the road. Say, how many of your blisters have already broken?”

Baker pulled a face. “That’s disgusting.”

“Says the boy who never shuts up about death. A couple of blisters are fine after your essay on lead-lined coffins.”

Garraty tuned out the rest of their conversation, turning to McVries. “You okay? You’re weirdly quiet.”

“Aw, Garraty, you do care.”

Garraty rolled his eyes, getting ready to turn back around to find Pearson or somebody, before McVries spoke again.

“No, I just think it’s a bit weird. The Musketeers were falling apart a few hours ago, and now it’s all hunky dory. How long ‘till the bubble pops.”

Garraty frowned. “What bubble?”

McVries gestured to the rest of the group with a wide, sweeping motion. “Them. Us. Happy, joking, all chummy. How long ‘till Parker gets his attitude back? Or ‘till Olson’s body reminds his mind he’s dying?”

Garraty looked back at Olson, and had to concede his point. Olson was a elastic band about to snap, stretched so tightly that it almost looked normal again, a bag of bones and rotting flesh held up by a fading lie.

“Why can’t we just enjoy it while it lasts?”

McVries shrugged, pushing the sleeves of his flannel up to his elbows. “Would if I could. But once you notice something it’s hard to forget it.”

Garraty shrugged, looking down at his feet. Once again, he found himself at a loss for words around McVries. The boy had a habit of saying exactly what Garraty never wanted to hear, yet needed to understand. No matter how hard Garraty tried to stay away from the other boy, he always found himself drawn to his side, their feet carrying them towards each other without either noticing.

“I guess I burst your bubble. Sorry, pal.”

“S’alright.”

They walked in silence until Garraty spoke again.

“Do you think we’ll see Percy’s mom again?”

McVries shrugged. “Dunno.”

“I hope not,” Baker interjected, and Garraty jumped a little, having not heard him come up to them. “That shouldn’t be how she gets the news.”

“And what news,” McVries laughed. “Everyone’s going to say that she’s the mother of the Walk’s own coward. They’ll whisper about her.”

“Percy wasn’t a coward.” For some reason, that pissed Garraty off. “At least he had the guts to try to run. Most people can’t do that, they’ll just lay down and die.”

“Woah, Garraty, I wasn’t shitting on him. But you know how the crowd gets. It’s a game to them, and we’re the players. They pick their favourites, they whoop and cheer at the best deaths.”

“Would you do it, if you could?”

“What, Baker?”

“If we could get away from the soldiers, and if there weren't all those sensors, would you try to run?”

Garraty and McVries spoke at the same time. 

“Yes.”

“Maybe.”

They looked at each other, surprised.

“You’d run, Pete?”

“You wouldn’t?”

Garraty shrugged again. “I might. I don’t know, I’d like to get away from here, but in the moment, I don’t know what I’d do.”

McVries scoffed. “I’d book it. Got nothing to lose, everything to gain.”

“I thought you said you joined the Walk because you wanted to die?”

“Maybe there’s more to live for than I thought.”

Garraty fumbled over his words, suddenly acutely aware of every part of his body. Were his palms sweating? “What about you, Art?”

“I’d get the fuck out of here.”

“See, he gets me.”

“What’re we talking about?”

Garraty opened his mouth to reply, but the boom of a gunshot cut off his words. Shaken slightly, he did a quick head count, scared as he always was when he heard the fire of a gun that a Musketeer had fallen. But, no, the Musketeers were all still there. And so was… everyone else, by the looks of it.

A second gunshot rang out, and Garraty’s head swam, vision blurring. A hand closed around his arm in a death grip, and terror seized froze him. Had he fallen? Was he buying his ticket?

“Goddamn it, Ray, _move_ -”

The world lurched, and Garraty slammed back into his body as his body hit solid ground and his nose collided painfully with the soil.

Garraty groaned, and tried to push himself back onto his feet, before a weight pinned him down. All he could see above him was green, and his vision was a little foggy.

“Shut up. Don’t make a peep.”

Boots thudded overhead, and Garraty heard a quiet gasp from his right get cut off, as if somebody else had clapped their hand over their mouth. 

“Call in reinforcements,” the Major’s voice thundered. “Follow the remaining Walkers.”

A soldier said something that Garraty couldn’t make out, and he didn’t dare breathe for a moment, until the unmistakable roar of the halftracks sounded, carrying the soldiers on after the remaining Walkers.

Garraty exhaled, and the weight on his back lightened. “Sorry,” Abraham said. “They would have seen you.”

“Don’t say sorry for saving my life,” Garraty gasped, sitting up. “What happened?”

Collie Parker was the one who replied. “Some protestors broke into the Walk. Shot out the sensor monitor and took out two of the guards.”

“You froze up and McVries pushed you off the edge of the road,” Olson added. He was slumped over and breathing harshly, but alive. “The soldiers were too busy catching the slower people or trying to make sure the remaining freaks who kept walking would stay that way to do more than quickly look off the sides of the track.”

“Pete,” Garraty said, mouth dry. “Where’s Pete?”

“He’s over there,” Abraham said, jerking his head to the right. Shuffling to the side, Garraty pushed some branches to the side, but couldn’t see anything. Christ, the Maine shrubbery was thick.

That thick shrubbery had saved their lives.

“Pete?”

“Here,” came the gritted response, and then a hiss of pain.

“Ray? That you?”

“Art?”

“Oh, thank god. Who’s with you?”

“It’s me, Olson, Parker, and Abraham. You?”

“Just me and McVries. He fucked up his ankle when he jumped, I think it’s sprained. You guys all right?”

“Yeah, we’re good.”

“Can you get through to here? I need help getting McVries up, but we gotta go.”

Garraty stuck a hand into the bush, and winced. “It’s sharp, but it’s not that dense. We can get through.”

Taking a deep breath, Garraty pushed into the bush, coming out the other side with hair-thin scratches littering his arms and faces. McVries and Arthur had managed to hide behind a fallen tree, half-sitting, half-lying on the grass. McVries’ hand was wrapped around his ankle, which was swelling up. He and Art had turned his red flannel into a makeshift bandage, and his shirt was covered in dirt and grime.

“You all right?”

“Fucking peachy, babe,” McVries bit, sending Garraty what was probably meant to be a smile, but just looked like a grimace.

“Fucking Maine, where even the fucking plants try to kill you,” Parker swore, picking a thorn out of his arm. “Anyone know where Pearson or Scramm is?”

Everyone shook their head, and a somber silence fell over the group. 

“C’mon, we don’t have time for this,” Olson said. “We have to move, or they’ll ticket us.”

“Right, yeah,” Abraham agreed. “Everyone should ditch their numbers.” 

They left their numbers in a hole under the tree McVries and Baker were hiding behind, and they all stared at them for a second. They seemed smaller now, less scary. They really were just bits of paper. 

Olson turned to leave, and then thought better of it, and spat on the pile. Wordlessly, Parker did the same, then McVries, then Abraham, until each of them had. Garraty kicked some dirt atop them, and wrapped an arm around McVries’ shoulders, holding him up. 

“You okay?” he asked lowly as the group began to walk.

McVries’ resulting smile was blinding. 

“Never better.”

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, I know TLW week ended two days ago, but.... yeah. 
> 
> Fun facts about this that I decided to edit out because they didn't come in naturally:  
> \- Scramm, Stebbins, and Barkovitch kept walking of their own volition  
> \- Pearson tried to escape, but didn't make it
> 
> As always, my Tumblr is binarystarkillers! Come say hi!


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